Unpaid Overtime Wages, Orange County Attorneys

Labor Lawyer – Overtime Laws in California – Orange County

California Labor Code Section 510 provides that any work in excess of eight (8) hours in one workday and any work in excess of 40 hours in one workweek must be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee. If you work in excess of 12 hours in one day, you should be getting paid double-time. Many employers want to avoid paying overtime, of course.

One common scenario is this: Your employer schedules you for a nine (9) hour shift, which includes a one-hour lunch break. But it gets busy and you don’t take your full one-hour lunch break. Maybe your employer pays you for the extra time worked, maybe they don’t pay you at all. Either way, you may have been shorted some overtime pay, or even minimum wage. Even if they pay you for the extra time worked at your regular rate they are in violation of the Labor Code because you worked over eight (8) hours, and should be getting paid at overtime rates for that time.

Moreover, if you don’t get paid at all for extra hours worked, your employer is in violation of Labor Code 1194, which requires compensation of at least minimum wage for all hours worked. If this is the case, you may recover all of your unpaid wages, PLUS a liquidated damages penalty equal to the amount of unpaid minimum wages.